Here’s to the complainers

At least a complaint means an ad is being seen - and isn't that what adland wants? Christian Finucane, founder and creative partner at The Core Agency, addresses the naysayers.

I have a theory there’s a correlation between the number of complaints a campaign might receive and its potential to deliver the goods.

It’s a gut feeling; perhaps a data scientist has run the numbers?

Because I’ve noticed over the years that many of the campaigns we’ve written that have received complaints have also driven great results.

We recently launched a cheeky campaign for one of our pure-play clients. One of the executions received multiple complaints, which concerned the team as they had bought the edgier idea, but any concerns were soon outweighed by an impressive uplift in sales.

No doubt social media plays a part in this. Clients, understandably, are becoming more skittish, not wanting a PR disaster unravelling in front of their eyes in the often-savage online bear pit. However, by choosing the safer creative option there’s also the very real danger of limiting the true power of what the campaign is designed to achieve.

And with seemingly shrinking budgets and a burgeoning stack of new media channels, campaigns need bigger edgier ideas to cut through, not vanilla thinking that too often simply holds up the mirror up society. I recently heard someone describe most brand campaigns these days as ‘bland campaigns’ – such is the propensity to just show a broad set of consumers simply doing what they do in their ordinary daily lives.

So, is it time to change the metric? Should clients be saying that if we’re not getting a few complaints, the campaign isn’t working hard enough?

Surely, it’s better to truly appeal to a distinct target audience and ruffle the feathers of a few on the fringes, than not really connect with anyone with a please-all approach. We all know that you can’t win all the people all the time.

Industry people often reference how much they admire Nike’s creative work, and it’s a case in point about the benefits of a brand being bold and having a strong point of view.

It has a discernible attitude built on a set of values that people can relate and aspire to – and then they really take it to the next level.

Just look at the Colin Kaepernick campaign in support of Black Lives Matter. They literally ran straight into the fire with the line, ‘Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything.’

Whether you agree with this social issue or not, you can’t mistake Nike’s brand values and its true sense of purpose.

And by standing by what it believes in, it instantly earns an inherent trust with its consumers, not to mention millions of dollars in free media.

So, it clearly makes business sense to get out there and stir it up because it’s more efficient.

You get a better bang for your buck. Something that should even get the CFO listening to the CMO.

In fact, Nike’s brand exposure through TV, radio, online and social media following the Kaepernick campaign gained US$163 million in free media, not bad for one TV commercial.

Yes, there was a lot of good and bad publicity in the conversation and its share price briefly dipped by one percent – proving a principle is only a principle if it costs you money. Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is if you want to reap the big rewards.

And where the campaign got real traction was with millennials. So here’s a baby boomer brand mixing it with their future customers, which is pretty smart. A bit of raw honesty and a whole lot of balls can really pay off.

It’s also consistent brand behaviour for Nike.

Twenty five years ago, there was another great campaign featuring the Premiere League bad boy, Eric Cantona, who Nike was sponsoring. He had been banned from playing football with Manchester United after kicking a Crystal Palace fan who had been heckling him from the side lines.

On his return from suspension Nike ran a simple one-shot TV ad that I’ll never forget. Cantona talks remorsefully to camera about his indiscretions and subsequent ban. The spot concludes with him saying ‘Who will sponsor me now?’ just before the Nike logo appears.

It’s a great reminder that strong brands need to make bold (if not polarising) work if they want consumers to make confident choices. It ensures the people that matter will love it, remember you, talk about you and perhaps even buy from you.

So, next time you’re pondering which campaign to proceed with, ask yourself what concerns you more – if it attracts a few complaints, or doesn’t get noticed at all.

Christian Finucane is founder and creative partner at The Core Agency.

30 should not feel like a deadline in advertising

When I say I feel like I am running out of time in my career, my mum laughs at me. You’re 26, she scoffs. In my head, I immediately make a calculation. Four – ticking closer to three – more years until an important window of opportunity closes. The dreaded 3-0.

When I first landed in the creative department, I was partnered with an art director who was over the age of 30. We were at similar career levels, she maybe had a year on me. We had the same ambition. The same work ethic. We stayed late, we drank wine, we talked ideas and we pushed ourselves.

Excited and naive, I searched for competitions we could do together. That’s where I hit a snag. There was next to nothing we could enter as a team. Every terms and conditions page I read, every entry form... they all said for people aged 30 and under. She had ticked over. I had not.

Ageism in advertising is not a new discussion. It’s a topic that has been analysed over and over. But as a young person, I was and still am incredibly surprised by just how much the advertising industry’s obsession with youth affects me too.

We are told to hustle in our twenties. We’re meant to eat, sleep and breathe the mad world we find ourselves in. Think outside the box. Create the best work of our lives, quick smart, and make sure we PR it all so that our name sticks. It’s an incredible amount of pressure when you’re just not sure who you are and what kind of work you even want to create, anyway.

Then suddenly at the age of 30, the door slams shut. You can’t be clapped at awards as a child genius. An up-and-comer. You were meant to be here, already. What were you waiting for? The shine wears off at such an arbitrary number.

Perhaps the assumption is that by the age of 30, you will have established yourself a career in advertising and can gracefully step aside. That, frankly, is no longer the world we live in. In Australia, the average person will change careers 5 to 7 times in their life. Much of this will be done between the ages of 20 to 30. By then, the advertising world is already saying that it’s much too late.

There are many people who don’t write a sentence of copy or draw a scamp until they have somehow stumbled into the creative department after multiple careers. Arguably the most famous man in advertising is one of them. David Ogilvy was nearly 40 before he got around to creating one of the most well-known ad agencies in the world. He’d worked as a chef, researcher, farmer and in the British Intelligence Service. He’d had a full life of experiences to draw ideas upon. And isn’t that where creativity thrives?

For women, the pressure to succeed young is increased ten-fold. You have to be exceptional, near legend-status, to stand the test of time. And if you dip out of the industry for a moment, it can be difficult to get back in. Women over the age of 50 are some of the least likely to get a job interview. They’re also the fastest growing group experiencing homelessness.

It seems nonsensical that we don’t value the experience, knowledge and frankly incredible ideas of people who have had and continue to have a rich life they can draw upon. As Cindy Gallop has said, “Our industry badly needs older people – or, as I like to call us, experts.”

My question is: why do we talk about age, whatsoever? Your level of experience in advertising has no bearing on age. Your ideas are not only for people your age. In fact, it’s the space where experiences merge and combine where the best ideas can happen. And it is the people who come to advertising from a strange, twisting path who often come up with the most challenging ones. So why aren’t we giving them a platform to do it?

Let’s do away with age-restricted competitions, lists and interviews that are only given to launch young careers. I want to hear from people who failed a couple of times in their 20s and are killing it at 40. I want to compete with someone who is older than me so that we can challenge each other. Make each other better. I want opportunities for people of all ages, without constraint.

I talk about this now – at the age of 26 when most people will be saying oh just you wait – in the hopes that this pressure won’t always exist. That when I reach the age of 30 I won’t think of it as an expiry date or feel like I’ve missed the boat. And that I won’t have to stop and look around at the age of 50 and think, god why won’t anyone hire me? I know so much more now than I did then.

Until then, I’ll be re-reading the parody 30 most disappointing under 30 as a consolation prize and a reminder that we don’t all have to have it together by a certain age. 30 isn’t the end of a chapter, it’s the beginning of a whole new story. I can’t wait to keep writing mine.

By Sarah Mould
Copywriter, The Core Agency

It’s hard to innovate from the inside

Christian Finucane, Founder & Creative Partner at The Core Agency, shares his thoughts in this article just published in AdNews…

It’s almost impossible to imagine, but perhaps Taxis Combined could have become Uber? With the emergence of smartphones, satnav and a huge fleet of vehicles their category was ripe for revolution.

But then again, perhaps it was impossible for them to realise or acknowledge the future threats to their business? Maybe the status quo suited them or perhaps they just needed some unincumbered external thinking?

One thing is for certain, when you are in the middle of a forest it’s bloody hard to see the wood for the trees…

When I discovered an old FCUK t-shirt during a recent COVID-19 clean out at home I was reminded of the brilliance of another great idea.

At the time, the French Connection brand was dull and its sales in the UK were plummeting. The client wanted a new campaign to cut through in the fickle world of fashion. What they got back was a ballsy ‘fashion’ idea that sent their sales through the roof. The idea was on pretty much everything they produced for years and solved their sales problem overnight. Their brand, bottom line and business were completely transformed.

It was a game-changing idea that came from their agency creative department, rather than the brand’s in-house creative team as is common in that category. It also represented amazing value from what was apparently a very small monthly agency retainer.

For the most part, our industry’s agency folk spend their hours creating campaigns for paid channels, chiseling out clever strategies and ideas that jag in the defined parameters of bought media. And that’s great, but there are ways other than advertising that can deliver step-change results for clients.

From my experience, the earlier we get involved in a project, the greater value we can provide by challenging the usual innovation process and how marketing aligns with it. Surely, it’s far better to have fresh and appealing products than merely fresh and appealing advertising for them? Of course, there will always be the need for new campaigns for old products – the bread and butter of our industry – and we’ll happily take those opportunities too!

Though, just imagine if more client fee agreements mandated that agencies spent 5% of their time (that’s just one day per month) thinking outside of the usual marketing requirements - how much additional value could be created?

With the creative and strategic talent we have in this country, there’s a big opportunity to solve some really meaty issues to genuinely give brands a new angle or even turn around their fortunes. Plenty of advertising people are naturally entrepreneurial, successfully running a side hustle or two of their own to prove the point.

History is littered with great examples of how a bit of outside thinking had the power to lift brands out of commercial challenges. Like when it dawned on Ford executives that cars were becoming parity products and they needed to find new ways to add value.

One idea was to partner with a national car park operator and offer free parking for Ford drivers. A brilliant way to differentiate - you buy a Ford and get much-prized access to parking spots in busy cities. Genius.

Unfortunately, Ford didn’t take up the concept, but years later in Japan Honda did. They bought up prime car parks in Tokyo’s city centre and rolled it out, proving a great idea is only great if you actually do it.

Imagine the increased value our creative industry would provide to the corporate world if our natural curiosity and non-linear ways of thinking were let loose. There is no doubt our collective external grey matter would lead to a greater diversity of innovation. Our working relationships would become deeper and more trusting. Client-side marketers would be seen in a new light, with more CEOs elevating the often-undervalued role of marketing in the boardroom, reappraising it from delivering brand growth to enabling business transformation.

In today’s digital world there are even more opportunities to think this way. Like when we helped our client QBE drive step-change growth in new policy sales by collaborating with their Sales Director and the marketing team. Instead of presenting advertising scripts, our idea was to simply ask people to use their smartphone to photograph their existing competitor insurance policy and email it to QBE. They did all the data entry work in the background and contacted the consumer within 24 hours with their best deal.

The idea magicked away all the hassle, time and frustration with getting a competitive quote and switching insurers. New policy sales smashed targets because it turned out people also emailed QBE their home, contents, landlord and boat insurance from other brands looking for a better deal. 

To pull off these kinds of ideas you need to work closely with clients and everyone involved needs to be prepared to take a chance, but the rewards are so much greater.

So clients, next time you need some help solving a tricky business issue, FCUK the idea that agencies can only do advertising, and give one a call!

Want to support adland? Shop local…

Christian Finucane, Founder & Creative Partner at The Core Agency, shares his thoughts in this article just published in AdNews…

A few weeks ago, my family was particularly impressed when I returned from the local Vietnamese restaurant with the takeaway in one hand and a free loo roll, they’d given me in the other. It was an unexpected idea that used topicality and context brilliantly.

COVID-19 is proving to be the mother of invention.

While working from home and spending more time in my local patch, it has been truly inspiring to see creativity and entrepreneurship in full swing amongst the local businesses.

The gyms have been teaching classes online, restaurants are selling delicious wine from their cellars and even boutique dressmakers switched to sewing surgery scrubs.

Like a looming client deadline, the pressure to keep cashflow alive has sharpened the mind. And having to work within a set of strict government rules (yes, a bit like an advertising brief…) it has forced many of the more laterally minded local services and providers to think outside the box.

In fact, the local gym I mentioned, who thought they were going to hit the financial wall, set-up part of their warehouse into a studio to stream their classes online. They have gone from 400 members to 7,000 members - that’s incredible!

Though, it’s not surprising either. And that’s because independent businesses have the all-important magic ingredient - skin in the game.

They understand what’s going on in their hood, they ask and listen to what their customers really want, and they go above and beyond to produce the goods. All at a fair price that represents true value, while fostering ongoing trusted relationships.

Another great example is the events company that (after its usual business stopped overnight) moved to manufacturing flat-packed desks for the WFH population. There’s also the little old lady who owns my beloved local bookstore, who created curbside pick-up so people could get the latest novels, while maintaining social distancing!

Many small business owners are ‘pivoting’ with the agility and dexterity of a ballerina in new, unexpected and unique ways. What’s more, probably learning more about themselves and their customers in the last three months than they did in the last three years.

It takes a tight, smart and nimble team to achieve this, people who are optimistic in mindset, as well as ambitious in their goals and outcomes. People who are willing to challenge convention, take risks and back fresh ideas. Basically, the kind of mindset and values that many local marketing departments are going to need to call on more and more.
Budgets may be shrinking in some categories, so you’re going to need bigger thinking! More powerful thinking for your money.

Could it be that out of this pandemic we’re going see a new landscape of creativity and innovation? One where local independent agencies and clients work together to help businesses and brands thrive, pushing Australia into a new economic recovery?

And, of course, one of the best things about working closely together in this new tougher environment is that everyone genuinely shares in the thrill of creating success - because everything matters more now, the stakes are higher. The whole team is engaged in nailing the campaign, because, like many stretched marketing departments now, indies have no fat in them.

It’s everyone equally pulling their weight and working in the same direction to make a difference. Adding not subtracting, encouraging not sabotaging. A collaboration where everyone makes a difference.

Though, the irony of working local is that when you do nail that killer campaign the global CMO is suddenly your best friend because you cracked the uncrackable brief!

So next time you’re shopping for an agency, shop locally and go to an indie. You can snap up bundles of fresh new thinking, not pre-packaged from a global parent company, but gleaned from relevant local insights and rooted in our own culture.

Not only that, just like the family-owned bookstore or local gym owner, independent agencies go the extra mile for you. They genuinely want you to get great results because they need to do well too. It’s a virtuous circle which means they won’t be afraid to challenge and surprise you in the pursuit of success.

By keeping local creativity and innovation alive and well you’ll be unearthing surprising new ways to communicate. You’ll probably befriend some new ‘locals’ along the way too…

Is it time for advertising to look on the bright side?

As we emerge from the challenges of COVID-19, what better time as an industry to put smiles back on faces with a lighter and brighter creative approach?

Christian Finucane, Founder & Creative Partner at The Core Agency, shares his thoughts in this article just published in AdNews…

Where’s funny gone?

If laughter is the best medicine, then perhaps it’s time we as an industry helped raise a smile behind all those ubiquitous masks.

What an opportunity to make creative campaigns fun again and add some real value to people lives – to feel good!

Purpose-driven campaigns have had their day, let’s face its mostly pretty boring stuff. It must research well, you know, in the way that humour doesn’t…

Having now sat through a barrage of ever-so-earnest COVID comms, I think it’s time to ease the restrictions on our thinking and let the creativity run loose.

And as any good laughter therapist knows, laughter releases endorphins that reduce the level of stress in your body and strengthens your immune system!

So, it’s pretty bloody obvious that even government COVID health ads should be funny… Imagine, even the message itself would be protecting people from infection, what could be more prudent in these fiscally challenging times?

If there were some fun games on the COVIDSafe app, more of the population would have downloaded it, getting us all back to ‘normal’ sooner.

Not only is it proven that laughter can reduce negativity, stress and physical discomfort - with a simple advertising overlay, this powerful emotion could also lead to a surge in shopping therapy!

So, it even makes economic sense to add some humour to our comms. Brands get remembered, talked about and bought - saving livelihoods, jobs and entire industries. Saving the economy just like that! Think of all the children we can keep in aftercare…

Attracting the best talent to our industry wouldn’t be a problem anymore either. Suddenly advertising would be top of the list for the budding scriptwriters and artists. Kids realising there’s a productive, creative industry out there, one that doesn’t follow the traditional career paths.

Even better, our amusing ideas could even influence influencers to actually post something actually entertaining. It would be our version of climate action, changing the nation’s atmosphere, so it feels good and upbeat!

Of course, many of the most effective ads of all time are funny, ‘Wassup!’ from Budweiser is a cracker and a big shout-out to their reprise of that in the States last month. The folks at Budweiser understand the power of a smile. Why? Because it opens your mind to a message. It’s a subliminal exchange - you’re lost in the moment of a hoot and wham the brand whips into your mind. Boom, everyone’s happy!

Who can forget the John West ads when the fisherman steals the salmon off the bear, or the Carlton Draft ‘Big ad’? And you don’t need a big budget to be funny, take a look at the American Budget Rent a Car ads from the early 2000s. I defy anyone not to feel good after seeing the jet propulsion pack ad, or the aromatherapy spot – there’s that therapy word again!

A friend of mine from Finland says everyone goes early to the cinema there to see all the ads because they’re so much fun. It is a badge of honour to be the most liked ad. I love that, because the best advertising helps shape culture, it lives in the moment and reflects our values. Something that ‘global campaigns’ simply can’t do because they can’t tap into the zeitgeist. Its brands saying let’s keep it local, let’s talk the way we talk, we get you. What a bummer all those cinemas were closed for a while…

And now that many of us WFH, spending time in isolation is the perfect time to cheer ourselves up by flexing those creative muscles and writing some happy thoughts for our clients. We can bounce ideas off our families and friends (all my kids have signed NDAs) to raise everyone’s spirits, inspire them to be more creative with their homework and get better grades. The revelation is that thinking laterally could bring them a joyful career.

So, there you have it, what better antidote to Covid-19 than a massive dose of humour?

Come on all you amazing CMOs out there, let your creative departments run wild and demand campaigns that have the power to disarm, chortle and charm. You would be helping make Australia an even better place and perhaps also help turn this recession around – getting products flying off the shelves would make all of us very, very… happy.